Monthly Archives: July 2011

Tonight is the last ‘race stage’ of the Tour this year. It is a time trial and my favourite, Andy Schleck, is not a good time trialist. I have fully embraced the new Luxembourg team Leopard Trek as my own, and currently they have riders holding first and second place in the GC (General Classification). But if they don’t make good time tonight….

The last few nights have been extraordinary as the riders have raced through the Alps. One of my favourite moments was seeing Eddie Merckx (a 5 times Tour winner and all round lovely man) yelling encouragement to Andy Schleck as he struggled up Galibier (2645 metres above sea level). And to see it work. That a few words of encouragement helped Schleck kick it up another notch and he won the stage and made it to the top of the GC. Amazing. Just amazing.

I am still loving CrayonFire’s illustrations of the Tour. It is becoming very hard to choose which one I like the most. I am waiting to see what the stage up Galibier looks like, I’m sure it will be fabulous.

For the first time in 6 years we finally have a picture hook in our bedroom. It’s a long and boring story why we haven’t until now, and why we suddenly have one, so I won’t bother going into details. But the exciting thing is, is that now I get to buy a print for our room. Oh the choices! What to do? What to do?

I have been looking at paintings of Italy, quotes from Gibran, movie posters and illustrations of quaint French streets. I’ve looked at black and white, and I’ve looked at colour.

So I need your help – obviously! I am open to all suggestions. If you have any favourite prints, artists, quotes, illustrators, photos (etc!), that you would like to share, I would be massively appreciative.

And just a quick note that the Tour De France is on again. These 10pm – 2am nights are hard work. But oh the joy of the Tour. It is not just the fact that it is France or that is elite athleticism or my favourite sportsman (oh, Jens), but it is snuggling on the couch with a glass of vino and my beloved. Bliss.

(and it is also healthy competition between friends who think that their fantasy tour team is better than yours….)

I love the colour mint green. So much so that I got married in it. And I have now spent way too much time this afternoon looking up mint green ‘things’ on Pinterest. But I also discovered this very fun things called a ‘Color Palette Generator‘ which lets you input a picture and it generates a list of the colours and shades found in that picture.

Let me demonstrate.

Take picture you love, like the one below (found on Pinterest, of course).

Pop the URL of the picture into the generator – and hello – lots of lovely colours you love. Best to read the full instructions on the site, but if I can do it, you can do it. I also worked out how to take a ‘screengrab’ as well. Feeling very tech savvy at the moment!

Our 5-year-old sensation is currently learning how to read. What an amazing, profound, fascinating process to be apart of. It makes me acutely aware of the power of words and that at their very base they are, simply, the tools of communication.